Farm workers in southern Minnesota are devastated after a massive barn fire killed as many as 10,000 sows and piglets.

The fire broke out Saturday afternoon just after 3 p.m. at the Cougar Run Farm, near the town of Truman. No employees were hurt, but roughly 4,000 sows and 7,000 piglets were killed in the blaze, a local CBS affiliate reported.

“This is really hard for us right now,” Cougar Run employee Kaycee Gebhart told the station. “A truck is replaceable, barns are replaceable, but these hogs are our livelihood and we cared for them every day.”

“They were more than just livestock to us,” Miss Gebhart added.

Crews reportedly battled the blaze for nearly four hours, salvaging about half of what was left of the hog farm.

“It takes a lot of water to fight a fire like this, when we got on scene it was roaring pretty good,” Truman Fire Chief Dave Bentz said.

Pipestone System, the company that owns the farm, plans to rebuild as soon as possible, the CBS affiliate reported.

“When we have a livestock loss like this, we lost a lot of animals so the owners of this farm will regroup and start over,” Pipestone System CEO Luke Minion said.